Questions About the Bus Barn? Here are the Answers

This article was written by Keith Brake, http://www.clownsiniowa.com/.

Sept. 2, 2010

The Sept. 14 school bond election is rushing up to meet area voters, and school superintendent Dave Versteeg discussed the topic with members of the Montezuma Community Boosters during their monthly meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 1, in Hometown Restaurant.

"It's a lot of money," Versteeg said about the $11.5 million bond issue which would fund most of the proposed school remodeling project. "But nobody is more concerned about that than our board."

"The board decided to try to do this all at one time rather than divide it up into smaller projects over time," Versteeg said. "We think now is the time, because interest rates are at 3.5 percent now - that's low - and construction bids are coming in 10 to 15 percent under cost estimates."

"The project could be divided into smaller hunks," Versteeg said. "But the board decided that would not be the best way to approach this. They reasoned that if you borrow every five years, it gets increasingly harder to pass the bond issue that would be needed each time. Plus, costs would gradually increase."

Versteeg said the size and cost of the district's new bus barn has become an issue in the election. He provided some rationale behind the decision to build that facility: "People have asked why there are more bays than buses," he said. "The board wanted to be able to house all of the district's other vehicles. And the district owns more than $1 million worth of vehicles," Versteeg said.

"Some who own pole buildings don't have cement floors and have asked why the bus barn does. The state fire marshal required it," Versteeg said.
Regarding the barn's location, Versteeg said it was more economical to locate it where it is - next to Badger-Gabriel Field - so that it could hook into the city's sewer system. And he said having restroom facilities in the barn was state-mandated. Had the barn been located on property across the street and two blocks north, a lift station or a septic system would have been required, possibly adding several hundred thousand dollars to the cost. Versteeg noted that six possible locations were studied.

"Some decisions have been made that were difficult in short-term, but I think will be better in the long run," Versteeg said.

"There has been some concern about a lack of detail provided," the superintendent said. "But it costs to produce a lot of detail. Also, there has been some concern about our adding eight new classrooms. We're really not, because we're replacing eight classrooms that will be lost in the remodeling," he said.